The Blood Witch

5: Soul Mates and Mating Bonds

~ Mithra Solheart, light elf ~

Her head pounds. Her body aches. And her mouth is almost painfully dry as she comes to and sits up, her head swimming violently. She nearly vomits, but then, she sees that she's been placed in a new location. A cell, deeper within the cave and its many tunnels. She looks at the wall of thin but powerful energy between her and freedom, and sighs.

Across the wide walkway, she sees the manticore girl. Mithra watches the girl as she, too, sits up, groaning as she looks around her. Then, her red eyes land on Mithra. Her long, white hair hangs in her pale face, and she crawls to the edge of the cage, tapping the nearly invisible wall. She yelps and jumps back, pressing her finger to her lips.

"Beware the walls," says Mithra, her voice sounding dead, even to her own ears.

The manticore girl studies her. "Who are you? Why are you here, in the Darkscape?"

Mithra shrugs.  "I don't know. I have no memory beyond waking here, and who and what I am."

Wincing, the manticore nods solemnly.  "I'm sorry, uh ...."

"I'm Mithra."

"Oh. Hi. Uh, I'm Callidora."

Mithra nods and looks down, sighing. She has totally failed. Somehow, there is a bond between her and the soul that's trapped in the vial around her neck.  Kai. He is trapped, and she is not able to free him. Rhialdir told her that the only way to save him would be to have his soul near his body, because if the cap on the vial is removed, and his soul leaves the vial, without Kai's body being close ....

He will die.

Callidora nods to the necklace. "Uh, there's.... a soul in there. I can sense it."

"I know," Mithra murmurs. Her voice now is raspy, broken. But why? Why does she feel such an intense connection to a boy she's barely met? Why is she so entwined with him?

A strange pain forms in her heart, then. It feels like her own heart is being cleaved in half. Like her own soul is screaming out in pain. She looks over at Callidora. The manticore isn't looking her way, until a cry escapes Mithra. And she doubles over, coughing and gasping hard, struggling for breath.

Callidora watches, her red eyes wide. "Mithra? Are you alright? What is happening? Talk to me!"

Mithra groans, shaking her head. She closes her fist around the vial, feeling the magically reinforced glass beneath her palm. Her skin is both hot and cold and she cannot seem to get a breath down.

"Mithra?!" Callidora cries.

Just as it started, the pain fades like that. But just as Mithra is gaining breath in her lungs once more, a snapping feeling rips into her chest. Tears spill down her face, and Mithra feels that pain hitting a crescendo, as if it had never faded at all. It is back, and she is screaming.

"Mother, what happened to Momma?"

"My dear, little Mithra," her birth mother said, stroking Mithra's own long, white hair. "My wife is dead. There is no more reason for me to remain than you, my love. But even then, I am drifting...."

"Mother, I can't lose you!"

"It is alright, Mithra," her Mother said, soothingly.

When Mithra later on went down to the room her mothers shared, she found it. The letter that told her that Mother was dead, too. Not just Momma. Both of them.

Mithra sobs, arms around herself, as if she thinks that she can hold herself together just by holding her arms around her body tight enough. Her Mother felt the mating bond snap. Momma felt the same thing when it snapped into place. She told Mithra that if it comes into place when your soul mate is in pain, it makes you feel that pain. And the same thing happens when it is severed by someone else.

The death of a soul mate is a violent and terrible thing for both of the people. But for Mithra .... is Kai truly her soul mate? Is that why they feel so close to one another? Or is it something else?

"Hey, Mithra," says Callidora, her voice panicked.

"I ... felt it. The mating bond, it showed me... he ... he's in so much pain...."

Callidora gasps. "He is your soul mate? The soul within that necklace?"

Nodding, Mithra touches the glass vial. "Kai ... I will save you. I promise."